Us Against the World
by SingOff-Key
Summary: Danny Archer and Maddy Bowen. That's all you need to know. Series Part 3 of Maddy & Archer Their Story Continued


It was a warm day in Freetown, the sea breeze brushing her face and hair every time the wind blew. The time was now nearing noon and the sun was high up in the sky, shining bright- which made her thankful for the shadow above her head and cool drink in her hand. Maddy was sitting at a bar on the beach, slowly sipping from a bottle of beer and occasionally glancing up at the TV, writing a few words on her laptop or simply watching the locals and taking in the surroundings.

People of all ages and ethnicities were walking on the streets, making them look like a colorful river. Some of the women were carrying baskets and other objects on their heads. Children were running around, playing noisily and gathering pickings from among the stacks of plastic items and colored glass bottles.

The city was loud and vivid, the natural sounds of the sea and light wind mingling with the noise and different voices, as if rhythmically humming one of those traditional African songs. Something else that was true of this small land. One could hear many different languages and accents.

Yes, in all aspects, Sierra Leone was a beautiful country, a war-ravaged one, nonetheless. The fires of the civil war hadn't stopped burning for eight years now, leaving behind them only devastation.

"You hear they took Marampa yesterday?" a male voice asks in a flat accent, and Maddy turns to look at him. Well-built, tall, dirty blond, wearing sunglasses and a patterned shirt. Handsome.

"Really?" returns the bar owner, unimpressed.

"Now, come on. You know damn well every move they make." the dirty blond insists, sounding like somebody who's not short of intel. "When are they gonna hit us, huh?"

"Oh, I imagine they come do some... shopping veeery soon."

"Ja, ja."

Maddy hasn't taken her eyes off of the dirty blond and she knows he's noticed her too because he points at her and asks the bar owner, who she imagines just smiles crookedly, encouraging the other to go talk to her. The dirty blond nods his head as if to say challenge accepted, takes off his sunglasses and puts them in his breast pocket, preparing to light a cigarette while walking over to her spot across the bar.

In the meantime, Maddy has gone back to watching the news report which is currently being broadcast on television.

"Can I offer you a cigarette?" he asks, approaching her, and she slightly turns her head to look at him.

"Oh, no, thanks." she politely refuses, before commenting on the story now playing on the news report. "You listening to this? The world is falling apart and all we hear about is blowjob-gate."

"Hm." he hums, lighting his cigarette. He speaks while taking a puff. "When was the last time the world wasn't falling apart, huh?" He is handed a bottle of beer, which he raises to take a sip from.

"Mm, a cynic." she remarks, putting her own bottle down and licking her lips, after taking a sip. "Why don't you sit down and make me miserable?"

At that, he smirks and they both chuckle, then shake hands. "Danny Archer." he introduces himself. "Maddy Bowen." she reveals her name to him.

"Pleased to meet you."

"Nice to meet you."

For a brief moment, they grin like idiots, squeezing hands, before he finally lets go.

"American, huh?" Danny doesn't fail to notice.

"Guilty." Maddy admits with a smile.

"Well, Americans usually are." he retorts, bracing his weight to the side and sliding his free hand in his pocket, while supporting his shoulder against the counter.

"...Says the white South African?" she asks innocently.

He tuts, before taking another sip of beer. "I'm from Rhodesia! Huh."

"We say Zimbabwe now, don't we?" she seizes the chance to further tease him.

"Do we?" he reiterates in a fake tone of surprise and disbelief.

"Yeah." she chuckles. "Last time I checked."

"Hm." he scoffs, before changing the subject. "So, don't tell me you're here to make a difference, huh?"

Maddy turns around to face him better, holding the bottle. "And you're here to make a buck?" she asks with interest.

"I'm here for lack of a better idea." he answers simply.

"That's a shame." she says, bringing the bottle to her lips.

"Not really." Danny explains. "Peace Corps types only stay around long enough to realize they're not helping anyone. Government only wants to stay in power until they've stolen enough to go into exile somewhere else. And the rebels, they're not sure they want to take over. Otherwise, they'd have to govern this mess. But,..." he turns to the bar owner "... T.I.A. , right M'ed?"

"T.I.A." M'ed agrees in his distinct, hoarse voice.

"What's T.I.A.?" Maddy asks, turning back to Archer.

Danny leans closer to her on the counter, pronouncing each word slowly for emphasis, in a dark tone of voice: "This Is Africa, huh?"

"Right." she responds, smiling a little with the corner of her mouth.

"You want another?" he asks, meaning another drink.

"Sure." Maddy takes up on his offer. She pauses, before asking. "So, which one are you? Smuggler?"

"Hm." he challenges her. "Am I?"

She lowers her eyelids, scanning him from top to bottom. "Somehow, you don't strike me as the UNICEF type." she says absently, her eyelids still lowered.

"How about 'Soldier of Fortune'..." Danny offers, waving his hand with the cigarette intertwined between two fingers. They chuckle, then he adds "... or is that too much of a cliché?"

"Diamonds?" she asks again, slightly tilting her head back.

"If I told you I was a mercenary?" he answers her question with another question.

"For Van de Kaap?"

She must have hit a nerve because Danny leans forward towards her, lowering his voice. "Better watch that type of talk, Ms. Bowen. You know, in America it's bling bling, but out here it's bling bang, huh?" He forms a gun with his fingers that hold the cigarette, then pinches Maddy in the arm. "I wouldn't want you getting in any trouble." he says with mock concern.

Maddy slowly raises her eyelids to look up at him straight in the eye. When she speaks, her tone is quiet, as if contemplating. "How much trouble do you think I would get into for talking about blood diamonds?" Her piercing green eyes bore into his ocean blue ones. Suddenly, the realization dawns upon him.

"You're a journalist."

"That's right." she states in a calm tone of voice, as if she's just dropped the bomb to see how he's going to react.

"Piss off, huh?" he fumes and stalks away from her.

A few days later, they meet again at the same bar on a night event. The music is playing loudly, its rhythmic beats mingling and spreading with the cool night breeze coming off from the sea. The place is overcrowded with people and reeks of sweat and alcohol. As per usual, that is.

Only tonight the air feels different, smelling a little like smoke and blood, the atmosphere is electrified to the point of bringing on a thunderstorm and there's an unspoken tension looming above. To an experienced soldier like Danny, it might as well seem like the calm before the storm.

He spots Maddy in the crowd, holding a drink in her hands and talking to a bunch of people- her colleagues, maybe? She glances over, smiling with just her eyes at him. A wicked, playful smile, yet a pure and innocent one. He returns the smile, as they close the distance between them.

"Hi,..." she greets him warmly, holding out her hand. "...I'm Maddy Bowen."

_God, why does everything about her have to be so beautiful?_

"How about you dance with me?" he asks, sounding more like demanding and less like asking.

"No, I don't dance."

"Neither do I. Come on." He loosely grabs her hand and leads her towards the dancing lot, near the stage. They dance to the rhythm of a hip hop song, the DJ playing fiercely.

"So, Danny..." she starts, putting her arms around his neck. His hands are on her waist.

"Archer." he corrects her automatically.

"Archer." she repeats, as if testing the name on her tongue. "Where did you first start moving stones? Was it Angola?"

Archer clears his throat.

"Then, you did the whole, um, mercenary thing. Was that fun?"

Again, he doesn't respond, just hums.

"So, what are you?" Maddy questions. "Nihilist? Opportunist?" To which he retorts: "Maybe, I wasn't breast-fed as a child, huh?"

"You think I haven't met people like you before?" she asks, slightly tilting her head back.

"I think you get off on people like me." His head is in the crook of her neck and she can feel his breath hot on her cheek.

"You think?"

"Ah."

Their bodies are almost pressed together when she asks: "When did you first start working for Van de Kaap?"

Archer pulls away, in annoyance. "Christ, you never stop, do you?"

Maddy laughs, then places her hands around his neck. "No, I never stop." she states, a hint of teasing and playfulness in her voice. "Do you want me to stop? Hm?"

"Why don't we go back to your place,..." he suggests, panting because of both the heat and crowding. "...see what's in the mini bar, huh?"

Maddy throws her head back. "I'm a print journalist... I drank it." she makes a cheeky rejoinder. Archer goes to pull away again, but Maddy is quick to grasp his arm. "Is it possible that you don't care how many people die because of the deals you do?"

Archer draws in a deep inhale, then exhales slowly. "Look,..." he says with some irritation, looking away from her. "...people here kill each other as a way of life. It's always been like that."

"So, you can just watch it and go about your day?" They're standing opposite one another, her mossy eyes piercing his. She looks like she's expecting an answer, an honest answer out of him. But he has no answers to give or maybe he just insists on avoiding questions and answers altogether.

"Maybe, we should all just write about it, then." he offers only a cutting remark in response. "Look, thanks for the dance, huh?" And he walks away from her, leaving her to wonder how much of a denial a person can be.

They are at a refugee camp in Guinea. Maddy is indoors writing down the events that took place earlier that day, when Archer walks in from behind her. He reads off her laptop.

_"In the ninety degree heat, Solomon Vandy drops to his knees, rattling the wire with his powerful hands."_ He makes no effort whatsoever to suppress a light laugh.

Maddy shifts a little in her chair in order to face him better. She blinks and sucks her lips in. "What?" she asks.

"Nothing." Archer replies with a sigh. He averts his eyes.

Maddy turns around to fully face him, not simply look at him with just the corner of her eye. She's smiling, but he can clearly see her anger bubbling underneath. Gradually, that smile fades away and becomes replaced by a grimace. "Do you think I'm exploiting his grief?" she asks in a low, emphatic voice.

Archer doesn't respond, only scoffs knowingly.

"You're right." Maddy admits, standing up abruptly. "It's shit. It's like one of those infomercials." At the last word, she chuckles. "You know, the little black babies with swollen bellies and flies in their eyes." She takes a pencil from a table and throws it in the pencil-case on her desk. "See, here I've got dead mothers, I've got severed limbs, but it's _nothing_ new. Sure, it might make some people cry if they read it, maybe even write a check." She glances at the computer screen, then back up at him. "But it's not going to be enough to make it stop! I'm sick of writing about victims, but it's all I can fucking do!" she points angrily at the things on her desk. "Because I need facts. I need names, I need dates, I need pictures, I need bank accounts." Her voice drops and she lowers her head to take a better look at him. "People back home wouldn't buy a ring if they knew it cost someone else their hand. But I can't write that story until I get facts that can be verified. Which is to say, until I find someone who will go _on_ record. So, if that is not you, and you're not really gonna help me, and we're not really gonna screw, then why don't you get the _fuck_ out of my face, and let me do my work?"

" ." Archer scoffs again. "Do you know that Solomon thinks his son's gonna be a doctor one day?" He lets out a bitter chuckle. "Maybe his baby dies in that camp, maybe his daughter gets raped. Who knows,..." he shrugs. "...maybe both." Then, his eyes narrow. "Do you realize that that diamond is the only chance he has of getting his family out of here..."

"You don't give a rat's ass..." Maddy cuts him off, not quite able to take any of his excuses or half-truths anymore.

"Do you understand that?" he asks in a raised tone of voice. But, Maddy shoots back anyways.

"...about his family."

Some days later, while on their way to Kono, they find themselves at a children's shelter in the middle of the jungle. The headmaster of the school, Benjamin, is very kind and friendly, thus allowing them to stay the night.

After having listened to the children sing, Maddy goes outside to find Archer, who disappeared as soon as the mini-performance started. Darkness has already fallen and the temperature is beginning to drop as well. Maddy can feel the chill on her bare skin.

As she continues her walk outside, she sees Archer sitting miserably in a half-lit corner on the porch, drinking from a plastic bottle, which contains a thick, white liquid. Maddy approaches from the dark, crunching on the dirt under her feet with her boots. She gracefully leans against the wall and he glances up at her, inviting her to join him. She sits opposite him and he gives her the bottle.

"It's palm wine." Archer explains, as Maddy takes the bottle in her hands. She smells and tastes it. Danny chuckles.

"Jesus Christ." This thing is a tad too strong for her liking.

"Ja, ja, it takes getting used to it, huh?"

Maddy takes another sip, trying to get used to it, like Archer said. It doesn't relieve the burning in her throat. "God. Ahem." She can confidently say it tastes as bad as before.

"Drank that as a boy." Archer makes an unexpected disclose of personal information.

"In Rhodesia?" she asks with a playful smirk. She hands the bottle back to him and he takes a swig. Maddy sits up straight, cheerfully. "I take notes."

"The Shona-" Archer starts, scratching at his beard, in contemplation. "the Shona have a word for me. Mukiwa, it means "white boy in Africa"."

"When did you leave?" she asks.

There's sadness to his voice. "I didn't leave. I got sent away to South Africa in 1978, when the munts overran us."

"Then you joined the army." It's a statement, not a question and he's half sure she already knows the story. Yet, for some reason, she wants to hear it from him too.

"Ja, ja, I did my time in Angola."

"The 32 Battalion."

_Ja, of course, she knows the story. It's her job to know the story. She wouldn't be a journalist otherwise. Not the journalist __**that she is**__, at any rate._

"That's right." he confirms, then, after a brief pause, adds rather defensively: "You know, contrary to what you might think about us, we fought _with_ the blacks, huh? Ja, side by side. There was no apartheid in a foxhole. The Colonel always used to tell us that."

"This is Colonel Coetzee?" The name has long ceased to be pleasant.

"Ja." he says simply, before going back to the wine to take another sip. "Then, of course, it's 1994. No more army. No more apartheid. Truth and reconciliation and all of that rubbish, you know."

It's Maddy's turn to take a sip.

"Kumbaya."

She nearly chokes on her drink. Is it the palm wine or their discussion that leaves such a bitter taste in her mouth?

"We fought and died together, you know?" His voice is warm, enthusiastic. "Black and white. Most people back home didn't even know we were at war!" Suddenly, his tone changes, drops, fills with bitterness, hurt and anger. "We thought we were fighting communism, but in the end it was all about who gets what, you know? Ivory, oil, gold, pfft... diamonds. So one day I decided "Fuck it", ya know? "I'm gonna get mine.""

"You gonna steal his diamond?"

There's awkward silence. Maddy scans his features with her piercing, green eyes, trying to gauge his features for a reaction. Archer finally looks up at her, with a really cruel look.

"Hm. That diamond is my ticket out of this God forsaken continent." he states bluntly.

"That doesn't answer the question." Maddy counters, in a low but firm tone of voice.

Archer says nothing in response to that, just lowers his eyelids, raises the bottle and takes another sip of the wine. He looks back up at her, then lets his hand with the bottle fall on his thigh. Maddy turns her head a bit to the side and lowers her eyelids, looking away from him.

"My dad..." she says quietly. "...came home from the war in '69." He doesn't know why she's telling him this, let alone why he's even listening. "And it took him..." Maddy reaches behind her ear, her eyelids lifting only slightly, looking like she's recounting a very painful personal experience. _Right, we were bound to get personal here._"... about... twenty years to get _right_."

_The American kind of personal._

Archer chuckles contemptuously. Maddy looks up at him, confused and a little annoyed. "What?"

"You Americans-" he snaps. "you Americans love to talk about your feelings, huh? So, what does that mean? What? You've got a thing for messed-up vets now?"

"Shut up." she orders him angrily, in a low voice. Any hint of mockery or disdain is wiped off his face in a heartbeat. His face drops and his blue eyes darken. Her expression softens. "You lost both your parents."

"That's a- That's a polite way of putting it, ja. Mom was raped and shot and um... Dad was decapitated and hung from a hook in the barn. I was nine." He leans back and scrunches his eyes. "Boo-hoo, right?" he chuckles bitterly.

Maddy just stares.

"Sometimes I wonder,..." Archer continues. "...will God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other? Then I look around and I realize... God left this place a long time ago." He leans forward, unable to suppress all the emotion waking up in him. "It's uh... Ah, What's the point, huh?" He's close to tears now, but he refuses to exhibit any kind of vulnerability or emotion in front of Maddy. He attempts to hide his moist eyes behind his hand, but Maddy is quick to catch it in hers. His instinctive reaction is to pull away, but Maddy does not let go. In that moment, Archer looks up, and they stare into each other's eyes, her thumb caressing the back of his palm.

She has never thought about the time when they would inevitably have to say goodbye. And yet, here they are parting ways, as she's about to board a plane to America and he's going to find the diamond with Solomon. She has insisted that she go in with them, but Archer just kept insisting back.

They are at the private military company base and it's time to say their goodbyes. Until they meet again. If they ever meet again and whoever of them meet again.

Maddy gives Solomon a hug, before turning to Archer. He gently puts his hand around her waist, guiding her a few steps away from Solomon to grant themselves some privacy.

Archer sighs. "Listen, I-" he starts to say, but she cuts him off. "No, you listen." Maddy looks at him sternly and he responds with a half-cracked smile. Then, she looks away, searching inside her bag.

Archer chuckles lightly. "In another life maybe, a'right?" he asks, as he's putting his backpack on his shoulders.

Maddy looks up at him, smiling. "Yeah." she agrees, then more firmly: "Sure."

"Ja." he reiterates. He anxiously looks behind him for an instant, and Maddy seizes the opportunity to take her camera out. From what little she knows about him, she assumes he's not the type to like having his picture taken.

The moment has passed. Archer looks back up at her, and she quickly places the camera in front of her right eye, setting it ready to take a photograph.

"You... uh... You find yourself a good man, a'right, Maddy?" he says, his voice sincere.

Maddy puts the camera down in her hands, her eyes following. Archer stares at a total loss, confused by her reaction to his words and unsure of what to say or do next. Maddy looks up at him, smiling with her mouth closed, then places the camera in front of her eye again.

"You know,..." she tells him, in a calm tone of voice. "...I've got _three_ sisters. They're all married to good men." She clicks the button, taking a photograph of him, then puts the camera back in her bag. "I prefer my life." she adds, making a noise which to Archer sounds a lot like sniffling. _Which human being ever found love, immersed themselves in it and decided, after they had tasted it, they didn't want or need it?_

She searches inside her bag again, this time taking out her card and giving it to him with a wide smile. "Here's my office phone, home phone, cell phone. I'm used to being pursued, but... what the heck." Archer takes the card from her, safely tucking it into the pocket of his shirt.

They both laugh lightly, then Maddy's features darken and she appears sad.

"You... uh... You better get on that plane, huh?" Archer softly squeezes her wrist, then repeats firmly: "You should get on that plane."

Maddy looks at him with a deadly serious look on her face, slightly tilting her head sideways and then straightening it back to its normal position. "So should you." she replies, after a really long moment.

Archer smiles at her sweetly, but her seriousness causes his little smile to gradually fade away. He lowers his eyelids, sensing the need to take his eyes off her.

Maddy starts walking towards the boarding lot to get on the plane, while his eyes are back to being fixed on her. After a few steps, she turns around. "You gonna call me?" she asks with the enthusiasm of a schoolgirl going on her first date.

Archer gives it a second of thought, before replying with a reassuring smile: "As soon as I'm near a phone, ja."

"Yeah, riiight." Maddy laughs, a bit mockingly. She turns around again, raising her arm as she walks to wave at him.

Archer watches her as she leaves, then briefly touches Solomon's shoulder, letting him know it's time for them to leave too and they start running.

She's sitting at a café with some friends of hers, when he calls her a few days later.

"Hello, Maddy Bowen?" she says, picking up the call.

"Thought I'd never call, huh?" she hears his voice on the other end, making a lame joke, like Archer usually does.

"And I'm so glad you did. Um, when am I gonna see you?"

"Maddy, I want you to do me one more favor, huh? I want you to go meet Solomon. In Conakry."

A bad feeling accompanied by fear and uncertainty starts creeping its way to the back of her mind. "In Guinea." she says mechanically, then asks worriedly: "Why do you want me to go to Guinea?"

"We found his son,..." Archer replies, out of breath. "...but he's gonna need some help. You understand?" He groans, as if in pain. "Maddy?"

Suddenly, the realization dawns upon her. "You're hurt." Her voice cracks. "Are you hurt?"

"Ja, well, I've got a little problem here."

Maddy somehow manages to pull herself together for the sake of them both. "OK, you, um, you tell me where you are." He seems neither able nor willing to pay attention to her words. "Archer?"

There's the roar of a helicopter taking off in the distance, before Archer decides to speak again. "I'm looking at an incredible view right now." His voice is low and pained but at the same time tender. "I wish you were here, Maddy."

"OK, then I'm coming to be with you. You just tell me where you are." she requests calmly.

"I don't think so." comes his weak refusal over the phone.

"Are you still in Kono? Because I can get someone there to help you." _Damn, why won't you just let me save you? Why won't you give us a chance?_

"Maddy, you find someplace safe for the boy, a'right? And keep him out of sight. And get Solomon to London. He's bringing something with him, and he's gonna need your help."

Maddy feels her legs give way, and she slides down onto her knees. "Why aren't you bringing it yourself?" A part of her remains in denial that he's dying.

"I'm saying it's a real story now, and you can write the hell out of it." Archer states explicitly, then adds sweetly: "I'm really happy I met you, you know that?" _Is that affection in his voice?_

"Yeah, I'm, um, I'm really happy I met you, too." Maddy returns truthfully. "And I wish I could be there with you."

"That's a'right." Archer comforts her. "I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."

A stray tear rolls down Maddy's cheek. Miles away, somewhere at the top of a hill in Africa, Archer looks at the sunset. She feels so proud of him and she has so much to tell him she doesn't even know where to begin. She's smiling, even though he can't see her.

Neither has the strength to end the call, although by now they have both accepted Archer's fate. So, they silently remain on the line. Until it goes dead...


End file.
